Which might be a lovely gesture, or it could be that he's experimenting with a new sort of musical setaside. You turn up, take a large payday for doing a brief solo performance to promote some sort of electronic gizmo, and slice off a small portion to thank the others for not turning up.

But maybe we're being unkind:

“There is no way we are splitting up.

“I did America solo last week at the Vodaphone awards.

“They’re fine with me to be doing this but it’s a bit weird singing with a gospel choir and not seeing your band when you turn around on stage.

It's also not entirely clear that Borrell paid for the drinks himself - he ran up the tab on Blackberry's account; it might be that they decide to swallow that too, rather than take it from Borrell's paycheque. After all, if you're paying nearly a hundred grand for a singer, a few more won't hurt overmuch.

Borrell's decision to do corporate work is interesting. We look forward to hearing of his exploits closing the Teignmouth Area Curtain Sales Conference in the new year.